New Orleans Pelicans: 3 rotation mistakes Coach Green must avoid

The New Orleans Pelicans have a new coach and a new roster that they hope will lead to more wins this season.

There is debate about whether the Pelicans have improved, but one thing is certain, this won’t be the same team under coach Willie Green.

We’ve talked about some of the ways Green will be different than his predecessor Stan Van Gundy, who gave him a roadmap for what not to do with a young team.

Fans tend to focus on rotations above all else when it comes to head coaches, as it is the easiest thing to complain about, which I understand.

But I also understand that a lot happens behind the scenes that we are not privileged to, and that the coaches know their teams better than fans do.

That being said, here are some rotation errors I’d like to see Willie Green avoid this season.

New Orleans Pelicans: Don’t fall in love with one starting lineup

One of the biggest mistakes SVG made last season was that he was reluctant to change the starting lineup even when it become abundantly clear it wasn’t working.

He stubbornly kept running Eric Bledsoe out as a starter even though he wasn’t adding much on either end of the floor and clearly wasn’t giving much effort.

It has to be deflating to players when they feel they have no chance to crack the starting five even if they are outplaying other guys, which was certainly the case with Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Bledsoe last season.

It was later revealed that this was one of the issues where David Griffin and SVG butted heads, which probably helped lead to his firing.

You can’t put loyalty to one or two guys over what’s best for the team, so Willie Green needs to stay nimble and dynamic when it comes to making lineups.